October 2026 | Autonomy 2

Om Namah Sivaya
Blessed Self,

These days we having been taking inspiration from reading the Sivananda Upanishad from page 500 onwards. In this section, called “Sivananda: A Modern Sage”, Master Swami Sivananda’s life story is outlined. Even more inspiring are the revelations of our Guru Swami Vishnudevananda on his time spent with his Guru Swami Sivananda. We strongly recommend all of you read and feel inspired by how they each started from very humble beginnings to become the realized souls they were. We learn that if we stick to our path we have the hope that one day we all will get there.

During our meditation, the many conflicts and calamities experienced at present keep coming to mind. The middle east crisis continues to create a lot of suffering for those in that region, as well with the Ukraine and Russia where innocent people are suffering. Adding to this, the great calamity in Nepal that has displaced so many and shattered the lives of those who living there. In similar times, Swamiji always asked us to pray for peace and to lessen the suffering of all those affected. To this end we are conducting a live online satsang, In the name of Peace, on Sunday, October 11 at 6:30 pm IST, at a time that should be convenient for most countries to join. We will come together to pray for peace through meditation and chanting. The satsang includes: 30 minutes of guided meditation, the daily chants (Jaya Ganesha), 30 minutes of Om Namo Narayanaya mantra chanting, a peace message, and aarti. It will be conducted on Zoom with unlimited participants, so kindly invite your family and friends to join. Please remember that our combined effort does bring positive results, and join us to pray for peace through meditation and chanting. We look forward to seeing you there.

Join the satsang here:

• https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86594303360?pwd=iyBOwBO4RRZY8ssjO0o0MLaL86BaXu.1
• Meeting ID: 865 9430 3360
  Passcode: 108108
  Please check your local time before joining.

Our focus of late has been improving our facilities and improving the quality of the teachings we offer and this focus has been paying great dividends as all our locations are thriving with many seekers. This, in turn, inspires us with to work diligently with renewed motivation.

Swami Vishndevanandaji’s centenary celebrations continue until the end of December 2027, and we are very happy that we are able to conduct special events to bring out Swamiji’s authentic teachings and continue to follow his peace mission efforts to the best of our ability. Let’s hope our continued effort will make the teachings spread to every house and every country bringing health and peace to all.

At this time we are also looking forward to the Bhagavatha Saptaham and Sadhu Bhandara from November 1 to 9 at our Netala Ashram in Uttarkashi, Himalayas. This year there are opportunities to sponsor these events in your family members’ names. Kindly contact [email protected] if you are interested.

Pranams,
Prahlada
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashrams & Centres, India

This is a variety of padmasana. Technique: Sit in padmasana with legs crossed. The heels should touch the lower part of the belly or abdomen. Take your right hand behind the back. Catch hold of the toe of the right foot with the forefinger and middle finger of the right hand. Then take your left hand behind the back and catch hold of the toe of the left foot with the forefinger and middle finger of the left hand. Now press the chin against the chest. Look at the tip of the nose (nasikagra drishti). Breathe slowly.

Some people find it difficult to catch hold of the two toes at a time. They can practise ardha baddha padmasana (half-pose) to start with for a month. Afterwarads they can take to the purna baddha padmasana (full-pose). Practise this half-pose on the right side. Then do alternately on the left side also. During the half-pose, catch hold of one toe with one finger. Change the side afterwards. The half-pose is a preparatory stage for the full pose. In doing the full pose, use a little skill. Catch one toe first, and when you attempt to catch the other one slightly bend the body forwards. This will make matters easy in catching the other toe.

This is not an asana for meditation. This is chiefly intended for improving the health, vigour and vitality of the body to a considerable degree. The benefits of padmasana are derived in this asana to an enormous extent. This must be practised regularly at least for six months, then only maximum advantages can be rrealised. You cannot expec the full benefits by merely sitting for a couple of minutes. You must practise this at least for half an hour. If you can do it for an hour or an hour and a half, you will doubtless derive immense benefit. There are persons who do it for full three hours. How tenacious and patient these people are! They keep wonderful health and vigour and a high standard of vitality.

Many diseases are cured by this asana. Chronic diseases of the stomach, liver, spleen and intestines that are pronounced incurable by allopaths and ayurvedic practitioners are cured by a steady practice of this asana. There is no doubt of this. Diseases of the stomach such as chronic gastritis, dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, dysentery, ascites, constipation, acidity, belching and chronic lumbago are removed. As it keeps the spinal column erect, hunchback is removed. The nerves of the waist, hips, feet and legs are purified. Enlargement of the spleen and liver is cured. Torpidity of the liver disappears. This asana exercises a potent influence over the surya chakra (solar plexus of nerves) behind the navel and stimulates it. You draw a great deal of energy.

While in the asana, draw the belly backwards and upwards. Repeat OM or Ram mentally. Imagine that the seminal energy flows towards the brain for being stored up as ojas shakti. Do this special practice for ten minutes daily. This process is a great help for keeping up brahmacharya.

Oct 11 to Nov 7,
Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Nov 8 to Dec 5,
Neyyar Dam, Kerala

Nov 15 to Dec 12,
Madurai, Tamil Nadu

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Oct 14 to 27,
Uttar Kashi, Himalayas

Jan 3 to 16,
Madurai, Tamil Nadu

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Jan 17 to Feb 13,
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Nov 15 to 29,
Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Dec 6 to 20,
Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Dec 27 to Jan 10,
Madurai, Tamil Nadu

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Nov 8 to 22,
Neyyar Dam, Kerala

Mar 7 to 21,
Neyyar Dam, Kerala

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Dec 6 to 10,
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Dec 12 to 19,
Neyyar Dam, Kerala

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There’s a special symbolism to the practice of Baddha Padmasana or Bound Lotus which sets it apart from some other practices. We’ll look at how to come into this special asana, how long to hold it, and how the position of the body and the limbs may affect the mind and the psyche.

I hope this video is beneficial for your practice and teaching.

With best wishes for your yoga practice!
Pranams.

There is a moment in the Mahabharata when an entire royal assembly is brought to a standstill by a woman’s question.
Draupadi is staked and lost by Yudhishthira in the game of dice. When she is called before the assembly, she does not simply obey. Instead, she asks that a question be put to Yudhishthira first. She is menstruating and dressed in a single garment, yet the question she raises reaches far beyond the humiliation she is facing:

किं नु पूर्वं पराजैषीरात्मानमथ वापि माम् ।
Kiṃ nu pūrvaṃ parājaiṣīr ātmānam atha vāpi mām?
“Whom did you lose first yourself, or me?”

If Yudhishthira had already lost himself, by what right could he then stake her? It is a deceptively simple question, yet it unsettles the very foundations of the assembly. Can marriage grant ownership over another person’s body? Can custom override personhood? Can the rules of a game transform a human being into something that can be won or lost?

Draupadi is not merely pleading for mercy. She is questioning the authority by which one human being can claim another as property. Her question asks the assembly to distinguish between what may be permitted by convention and what is truly Dharma.
When Bhishma struggles to give her a definitive answer, he acknowledges the difficulty of the question:

सूक्ष्मा गतिर्हि धर्मस्य ।
Sūkṣmā gatir hi dharmasya.
“The course of Dharma is subtle.”

The dilemma before the assembly is therefore not simply about the rules of a game. It is about what happens when duty, authority, and convention come into conflict with the dignity of a person. A rule may exist, but its existence alone does not make every action performed under it righteous.

Draupadi by Raja Ravi Varma

The Body as a Field, Not an Object:
This question finds an unexpected echo in yoga.

The body is kṣetra; a field through which we encounter breath, sensation, movement and stillness. It is not merely an object to be shaped, controlled or perfected. It is the living ground of our experience, entrusted to our care.

And yet, how easily we turn even our own bodies into things that must simply obey. We force ourselves deeper into a posture because someone else can go further; we override pain because we believe discipline means enduring it; we compare our flexibility, strength, weight and appearance with another’s. In doing so, discipline can quietly become another form of violence, while still being called practice.

Draupadi’s question offers another way of thinking. The body is not an object to be possessed by another person, by society, or even by our own ambitions. Sacred autonomy means recognising that a person cannot be reduced to property and that another person’s authority does not extend to possessing, transferring or determining the fate of their body.

This does not mean that autonomy exists apart from Dharma or relationship. It means recognising something inviolable in the person: a dignity and agency that cannot simply be handed over by custom, status or authority.

Yoga, then, asks us to listen before we command. The body speaks through breath, sensation, fatigue, pain, strength and ease. To attend to these signals is not weakness; it is viveka, discernment.

Surrender Without Surrendering the Self:
There is another dimension to Draupadi’s story. When the human authorities before her fail to uphold what is right, she turns towards the Divine. The Mahabharata preserves her appeal to Krishna:

कृष्ण कृष्ण महायोगिन् विश्वात्मन् विश्वभावन ।
प्रपन्नां पाहि गोविन्द कुरुमध्येऽवसीदतीम् ॥
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Mahāyogin Viśvātman Viśvabhāvana,
Prapannāṃ pāhi Govinda Kurumadhye ’vasīdatīm.

“O Krishna, O great Yogin, O Soul of the universe, O source of all that exists; protect me, Govinda, who have taken refuge in You and am sinking in the midst of the Kurus.”
There is something profound in this movement. Draupadi does not surrender her agency to the men who claim authority over her. Her surrender is directed towards the Divine.

To belong to oneself does not mean believing that one needs no one. And surrender to God is not the same as surrendering one’s agency to another human being. One can surrender in devotion without becoming an object of possession.

Perhaps this is one of the quiet paradoxes of spiritual life: surrender need not diminish the self. It can become the very place from which the self is restored.
Draupadi stood in a hall where powerful men believed they could determine her fate. She answered them with a question.

And perhaps that question still reaches us across the centuries:

Who has the right to claim what was never theirs to own?

On the yoga mat, the question becomes intimate. Who decides how far I go? Who decides when I stop? Who decides what my body must become? Perhaps the answer begins quietly. The body is not an object. It is kṣetra, a sacred field entrusted to our care. It is neither something to dominate nor something another person can rightfully possess. It is the field through which we experience this life.

To practice yoga, then, is to cultivate the awareness to inhabit that field with dignity, discernment and care and to listen deeply to the one who inhabits it.